AOL and Microsoft Having Trouble Reaching New Deal

Not exactly about SE's But Very important to All webmasters

[seth_wilde]

AOL and Microsoft have yet to renew a partnership agreement that expired Jan 1. What could this mean for you? Well first of all aol wouldn't come preloaded in new versions of windows (who cares right?). But the real kicker is that AOL is no longer obligated to use IE as their Browser. Can you imagine the design havic caused if netscape6 suddenly became AOL's new browser?

full story [news.excite.com]

[rcjordan]

>Can you imagine the design havic caused if netscape6 suddenly became AOL's new browser?

Heh! I was reading that article and thought the same thing. My other thought; AOL should quietly buy Opera.

[grnidone]

Why wuldn't Netscape become AOL's new browser? Doesn't AOL own Netscape?

-G

[seth_wilde]

"Why wuldn't Netscape become AOL's new browser?"

If AOL and Microsoft don't reach a deal it probably will. Thats what makes it interesting. Netscape6 reads many pages differently than IE, which could be a headache for designers.

[tedster]

Who said the browser wars were dead? I was kind of hoping to ignore the NN6 weirdness, but somehow I always knew we'd all need to pay attention to it.

If AOL has any accumulated savvy, they'll at least wait to switch until they've tweaked up a better version 6.5 for Netscape.

The big line-up of TimeWarner/AOL/Netscape and SUN is a power to be reckoned with. Can they keep Redmond in line, or will both sides just bedevil the public indefinitely as they struggle for control?

Should be a very interesting year ahead. With the new WindowsXP operating system (and a third Microsoft browser in the mix) things may become more complicated, instead of less.

[seth_wilde]

"Netscape's browser usage share would rise more than six percentage points to nearly 20 percent worldwide if AOL (NASDAQ: AOL) converted all of its privately labeled IE browsers to Netscape"

[statmarket.com...]

[mivox]

Why wuldn't Netscape become AOL's new browser? Doesn't AOL own Netscape?

My thoughts exactly... why in heaven's name would you want to continue a third-party licensing deal for a browser, when you own your own browser. Keep it in the family, eh?

N6 may cause a hassle at first, but if browsers all become standards compliant, it will end up making a web designer's job MUCH easier.